CENTRAL CITY HOUSING VENTURES
GROUND BREAKING CEREMONY
Chicago, Illinois

JUNE i1, 1996

John M. Buchanan, Pastor
Fourth Presbyterian Church, Chicago

HOMILY

The great American Theologian Reinhold Niebuhr wrote:

"Nothing that is worth doing can be achieved
in a lifetime: therefore we must be saved by
hope. Nothing which is true or beautiful or
good makes complete sense in any immediate
context of history: therefore we must be
saved by faith. Nothing we do, however
virtuous can be accomplished alone:

therefore we are saved by love."

Niebuhr wrote that in 1951 -- so it couldn’t have been
written with Central City Housing Ventures (CCHV) in mind -- but
I have thought about it a lot, particularly the first proposed
thought: "nothing worth doing is achieved in a lifetime,
therefore we are saved by hope." Because, frankly, there were
moments over the past several years that I doubted if any of us
would live long enough to see this project underway in our
lifetime.

But here it is, praise God. And my heart is full of
gratitude -- to Jacki Miranda and the members of the cCCHV Board
~~ to our friends at the Chicago Christian Industrial League ~~
and to the people of the Second Presbyterian Church, and to those
who have patiently worked with this project and for the churches
who have sat through endless meetings -- and to my clergy
colleagues, particularly Gene Winkler and Bob McLaughlin, with
whom I have been privileged to share the dream of an ecumenical
witness in Chicago, an actual hands-on, bricks and mortar
construction for the welfare of our community, and to Mayor Daley
and the City of Chicago for standing with us in this endeavor.

The words of Niebuhr have been on my mind as well because
they remind me of a truth we sometimes forget: that is, we are a
community: "Nothing we do, however virtuous, can be accomplished
alone, therefore we are saved by love." We are in this together:
we share, as people of faith, with all the people of the

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community, the joys, privileges, responsibilities and tragedies
of our common life.

It is a great city -- the best city in the world. But our
faith tradition mandates a special responsibility: to be the
conscience of the community: to see what the community would
prefer not to see, and to name what the community would ignore,
and to stand with the outsiders, the marginalized, the ones who
fall through the cracks -- who live well below the safety net:
the very ones who suffer first and most every time the body
politic decides to economize.

It is not always a popular responsibility. But it is an
honorable one and a faithful one -- and sometimes ~- this moment
being one of them -- it is an effective one.

The faith tradition is clear --

"When the poor and needy seek water and there is none...
I, the God of Israel will not forsake them," Isaiah wrote.

And

"therefore says the Lord God, see, I am laying a
foundation stone, a precious cornerstone, a new
foundation andwill make justice the line and
righteousness the plummit."

And

"T was hungry and you gave me food,

was thirsty and you gave me to drink,
Was a stranger and you made me welcome,
was naked and you gave me clothing,
was sick and you cared for me,

was in prison and you visited me."

HAHAH

And he surely would have added "I was homeless and you gave
me sheiter."

The best and highest and holiest of our faith tradition is
the assumption of responsibility for the life of the human
community, the standing in solidarity with the poor, the
encouragement of the weak ...

One of the prophets of our age, the late Lewis Thomas, a
genetic biologist, a physician, head of Sloan Kettering, said,

"A society can be judged by the way it deals with its
weakest and most vulnerable numbers,"

In a day when it has become politically correct and even
fashionable to blame the most vulnerable for their vulnerability,
and the weakest for their weakness, thank God, for a community of
faith with courage and tenacity to speak the truth, God‘s truth.

And the determination and grace to do -- in the name of God
-- what must be done to encourage and stand with those in need.

And the patience to stay with it over the years.

The promise of this project is precisely that it shelters,
enables and empowers men and women, and, in a modest but
important way, levels the playing field, providing a base ~- a
home -~ from which the rest of life can be built.

The promise and beauty of this project is that hope.

"Thank you" to all who have made it possible and will see it
through to completion.

Thanks be to God.